Shannon Sharpe reveals how ‘Tom vs. Time’ resonated with him

Reflecting on Episode 1 of Tom Brady's Docu-Series 'Tom vs. Time', Shannon Sharpe discusses Brady's training and conditioning and how it reminded him of his playing days.

- Shannon, what was your biggest takeaway?

- Why is Tom Brady patting himself on the back? Now, I know a guy that wrote an Instagram post to himself, congratulating himself on 30,000 points. Why would Tom Brady pat himself on the back? Why can't we do that, Skip?

- Because one guy's won five Super Bowls and about to play in his eighth, and the other guy's lost five finals.

- Yeah, but hey-- Mt. Rushmore basketball player. That's neither here nor there. But I liked it. I was-- I was a little skeptical at first, but I liked it. I still think he a little cheese ball, a little, you know--

SKIP BAYLESS: I agree.

- I'm like, oh my god, Tom, really? Really? Is that the way--

- I agree.

- I bet you-- look. You-- you're at home.

- I'm giving you this. You're right. You are right.

- But he provided some valuable insights, and I don't-- I will not sit here and Skip-- and says I'm-- I was as great a player as Tom Brady. But a lot of what he said resonated with me.

SKIP BAYLESS: I got it.

- Because I gave up my life and I surrounded myself with-- with people that understood that football was the most important thing. And if football-- if me and football wasn't the most important thing to you, well, I removed myself from the equation. I realize-- and I've had this conversation with my kids, because there were times that I promised to take them to Six Flags, but I had trained and pushed myself so far, Skip, I couldn't go. And they didn't understand it then. They was just thinking Daddy didn't want to do anything with them.

As they got older, and as they are older now-- they're in their 20s-- they understood what Daddy was doing, because Daddy realized--

SKIP BAYLESS: Yep.

- Time is the one thing that you cannot recapture. And so I try to do it as-- as-- as much time to find, because it it's not like a doctor, Skip. I can be a doctor for 20 years. I can be a lawyer for 30 years. You've got a small window to be a professional athlete, a very small window to be at the top, and I wanted to get there and I wanted to stay there.

And I realized what it was going to take. And to watch him train in the offseason-- and what he said really resonated with me, Skip. I wish I had known 10 years ago what I-- in my 20s. See, at 20-- he says, I'm better at 40 then I was 22. He said, if I could have trained from 22 like I train now, man, what could I have been?

Skip, I said the same thing. I got introduced to speed training and I started training like a track athlete, doing a lot of the stuff they did. I set the record for receiving for tight end in the game, Skip, in year 13-- year 13! I had two of my longest touchdown runs in year-- year 12 and year 13.

So I'm like, Tom. It resonated with me to see what he was going through, to see Dr. Guerrero. And like I said, I ain't got a problem with-- I don't even know Dr. Guerrero. But Tom Brady believes that this man has added years.

- I'm not even sure that he's a doctor, but--

- Well, whatever-- I don't even know his--

JOY TAYLOR: Yeah, like the Dr Pepper commercial.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, he a real doctor, but I guess he stayed at Holiday Inn, so.

JOY TAYLOR: Right.

- He plays on one Tom Brady. But Skip, you-- Tom believes that whatever this man is doing--

SKIP BAYLESS: Yep.

- --to him and for him--

SKIP BAYLESS: He does.

- --is helping him. Skip, these guys don't come cheap. You hear the stories about LeBron spending $2 million. I remember I had a guy named Steve Hamilton and I believed in him. I swore by him.

So in the offseason, I would bring him out to my-- bring him out with me. Skip, when you bring these guys out, you basically-- you take up their book. So if you normally get-- you know, he might have 10 appointments that day. You bought up all those appointments--

SKIP BAYLESS: Yeah.

- --for the week, every day. And you putting them up, so it's not ch-- people don't--

- No.

- To be great like Tom Brady or to be great like LeBron, or like these top-flight athletes, Skip, it costs money. It costs time. And you better have a partner that's willing to understand that and accept that, because if they don't, it's not gonna-- it's not-- first of all, it's not going to last long. Because when you're great and the other partner doesn't understand that it takes time, it takes a single-minded focus, and if that partner doesn't understand that, it's not going to be long, Skip.

And I'll give Tom credit. I didn't think I was going to like it, but watching it and then see-- and seeing the dedication of what it takes for him to be great at this age, because here's the thing what all great athletes, Skip. They don't compare Tom Brady to any other quarterback. They compare him to a 30-year-old Tom Brady, a 28-year-old Tom Brady, that's the comparison. They never compare LeBron James to-- I mean, not LeBron-- Michael.

SKIP BAYLESS: Yeah.

- Michael at 28, that's what the comparison is. And for him to-- to-- to want to do it every day, Skip, I loved the training. The training didn't get me. It's just them damn beatings. I couldn't do it anymore, Skip.